Anyone for Tennis?

We all know that tennis is a competitive sport, and you don't have to be a tournament player. The most vicious cut throat tennis I've ever experienced was a social ladies round robin on the North Shore of Chicago. This was back in the day when most women didn't have careers, so a huge amount of status was tied up in advancing up the ladder. Smashmouth doesn't begin to describe the competition.

Last Wednesday, watching the Brownian movement of crime writers in the room at the Edgar Symposium and Cocktail Party, I was reminded of tennis teams, ladders and competitiveness.

There was nothing brutish or nasty going on, like the women's team tennis, but the competition was there. Tennis players only like to play with players on their level or better yet, players above their level. Who wants to hack around with someone who flings the ball into the net or the next court when you are way beyond that?

Writers have similar agendas. If you have three published books, why would you waste time talking to someone trying to get her first book to an agent or publisher? No, you'd want to talk to the big guns of writing, the panelists, the best sellers and the movers and shakers. So we had the A, B and C teams frantically networking and with a certain amount of sucking up occurring. There is nothing democratic about writing. Crime writers are are nice, funny, and talented. Stephen King has publicly recommended books by new writers and for that he is to be commended, but he's in the minority. With midlist writers being dropped and having to hustle, it really is dog eat dog out there, and the wannabes have their noses pressed to the window. After all, they could be the new competition.

Kinda depressing, because it's another form a rejection, and god knows, we writers are used to that in spades, so suck it up, talk to your peers, and go home and write better. Write best.

I might be in a better frame of mind, had a fierce bad rabbit not eaten the bloom off the only tulip that was still whole. They say Eastern Cottontails are endangered. This one will be if he keeps eating my bulbs. So now the spring bulb blooming is 100% bust. Nada. Zilch. But I see other stuff pushing out of the ground, the lilies, the iris and sedum, my solomon's seal. There is hope. Just. It's a good year for birds if not for bulbs, so maybe everything evens out.

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